Garden developers say building is for their own kids

Supporters of the Children’s Magical Garden came together on the morning of March 11, resolving to reclaim a lot that is slated for a development project. Photos by Aresh Javadi

BY SARAH FERGUSON | Members of the Children’s Magical Garden filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court on March 10 to reclaim the portion of the garden that is now slated for development. They say their 30-year occupation of the lot at 157 Norfolk St. gives them a legal claim of “adverse possession.”

They are asking the court to name C.M.G. as the lot’s rightful owner and are seeking damages against its previous owner, developer Serge Hoyda, whose workers fenced off the parcel last May, trampling plantings and effectively dividing this Lower East Side haven in half.

Under New York State law, a person can claim adverse possession if they “openly, notoriously and exclusively” use someone else’s property continuously for 10 years, and believe they have the right to do so.

“We’ve met the 10-year period, and our suit alleges we’re entitled to damages for having been deprived of the use of the land by the fence,” said C.M.G. attorney Benjamin Burry of the firm Sidley Austin, which is handling the case pro bono. “We are seeking a permanent injunction that will prohibit them from further trespassing or developing the lot in any way.”

Whether C.M.G. members can prevail with an adverse possession claim now, after Hoyda just sold the lot to another developer for $3.35 million, will be a true test of this centuries-old legal doctrine. The new buyer, 157 LLC, is also named in the suit. A woman who answered the phone at Hoyda’s real estate firm, S&H Equities, in Long Island, dismissed the lawsuit out of hand: “Are you serious? Do you realize how ludicrous this is, that we don’t even own it now, and that it was a blight on the neighborhood?” responded the woman, who declined to give her name.

The gardeners say they staked their claim to “lot 19” and two adjacent city-owned parcels at the corner of Norfolk and Stanton Sts. 30 years ago, when the place was an open-air shooting gallery festering with trash, rats and used needles. They chased out the junkies, put up a fence, and planted fruit trees and vegetables, transforming it into a green oasis and learning center for local children and neighboring schools.

By contrast, the lawsuit claims that “for decades” Hoyda and preceding owners “abandoned lot 19 as a shameful eyesore and a danger to school children.”

Tristan Wiechers, a kindergartener at P.S. 20, spoke at the March 11 rally, along with his mother, garden member Emily Weichers.

City records show Hoyda purchased the lot for $180,000 in 2003. Prior to that, the lawsuit alleges that in 1999, Hoyda or his associates tried to erect a “makeshift” interior fence around the lot, but community members tore it down. Over the years, Hoyda floated some development schemes, but did not seek to evict the gardeners until last May, when he enclosed the lot in a hurricane fence and hired a 24/7 security crew to keep activists out.

C.M.G. members rallied and succeeded in getting the garden’s two adjacent city-owned lots transferred to the Parks Department for preservation under the GreenThumb program. Despite such official recognition and appeals to keep the garden whole, last November Hoyda filed plans to erect a six-story, six-unit residential building on his parcel, complete with a penthouse and gym.

Then in January, Hoyda sold the property to 157 LLC, a legal entity connected to the Yonkers-based development firm Horizon Group. (Horizon is currently putting up a swanky condo building down the block at 100 Norfolk St.)

When contacted last week, Horizon spokesperson Brian Hamburger sought to distance his firm from the turf war.

“This is really a lawsuit between the previous owner and members of Children’s Magical Garden,” he responded in an e-mail.

Hamburger also defended his clients’ “honest intentions.” He said the partners in 157 LLC were “longtime friends” who “raised their families in New York City” and were seeking to “develop homes for their own children and future grandchildren.”

“They understand the importance of community and plan to work with the local Norfolk residents to maintain the garden while fulfilling their own personal goals,” Hamburger said.

But C.M.G. members say they’ve invested heavily in the property, too. On the morning of Tues., March 11, parents, children, teachers and the principal of P.S. 20, the Anna Silver School, gathered near dawn to describe how the garden evolved over the years to become an open-air classroom for P.S. 20 and three other neighboring schools. Last year, kids at Marta Valle High School made pies from apples they picked from the garden’s apple tree, and children from P.S. 20 now grow herbs for their school lunches. The garden also hosts free jazz concerts and poetry readings, and offers summer camp programs to children in Head Start and the Cub Scouts.

“Our claim represents decades of caring for and loving a particular piece of land,” said C.M.G. President Kate Temple-West, who has been mentoring children there for the past 17 years. “Every single tree and plant that’s growing here has been planted by the children in the community, with the help of members and teachers. Every plant means something to somebody.”

Although the garden’s two other lots are now protected, bulldozing the interior “lot 19” — the space that gets the most sun, and where the children had their vegetable beds and meditation circle — would rip the heart out of this budding community haven, C.M.G. members maintained.

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